Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Dogs of HELP FIDO

(admin note: This is the second in a series of stories about the dogs who belong to the members of HELP FIDO. These stories will help you to understand why we do what we do. Also - this was written by Amanda Spires but because she STILL hasn't hooked up her pc at home and her work won't let her see blog's - it has been posted by Admin. Maybe someday we will be able to convert her posts over to her name - if she EVER gets online at home!)

Diamond Dog's Story:Diamond's special. And when I say special, I mean short bus special, different special, backwards special and silly special. He's all sorts of special, folks. He was one of two dogs that bravely took me in a new direction that changed my life. If that sounds overly dramatic, that would be accurate. Even before I met my little alien, I had raised my hand to help a few deserving dogs from our shelter find a new home who would otherwise be put to death for just being something that “could be identified as” a pit bull. "Yea," I thought, "we’ll transfer these guys to all those awesome pit bull rescue groups that are just aching for more dogs to place. It’ll be really easy." Yea, real simple. That bubble didn’t take long to burst. After a few months of disappointing news from inundated pit bull rescue groups, and other groups that couldn’t get involved with “those dogs”, we went back to the drawing board and I found a new passion.

OK, back to Diamond. Diamond lived out an estimated 1-2 years tethered to a chain-link fence in a dusty backyard. His "shelter" was a Vari kennel (the type OK'd to transport dogs in airplanes). As an outdoor dog in Central Ohio, he endured rain, snow, freezing temperatures, broiling temperatures, fly strikes, fleas, sunburn, eye infections and probably some not so nice treatment from our fellow two-legged types. A friend of mine refers to this type of existence as "bird bath terriers" (pit bull terriers plopped in a yard and left to rot there much as an unattended birdbath would). Enter a few amazing animal cruelty investigators (two women that he worships to this day), a search warrant and the local police. Diamond’s fate took close to 1 year to be determined. Since then, over the past 2 and half years, he's been a huge part of my life. I tend to say he adopted me, but truth is the first (and last) time someone inquired about adopting him, I had to turn them down. The idea of him living with someone else was just something I couldn't bear! So, he became my "foster" dog. I think we all know the rest.

He's put on about 10 pounds since then (so he's close to 70 pounds currently) and has clothes now (which he loves, especially the rain coat and his fleece). He's been beaten up by no fewer than 2 cats and has been reduced to a shivering mess by a feisty Shi Tzu. He's my shadow and has learned to put up with a lot of changes in the past 12 months. My dude that loves . . . no . . . clings to routine lost the first real home he ever knew when I didn't renew my lease last summer. I put our life in storage, quit my job and stuffed him and his large dog bed in the car for a road trip that took 4 days to finish. I think people wondered where I found such a backwards, unidentifiable character, but he loved the West Coast sun and we found quiet spots to enjoy together. We're settled once again and his life now includes a new-ish canine lil' bro and a bratty foster puppy. He really does love to wrastle with the youngsters, but every once in a while (like when he gets clobbered by two teenaged pit bulls reenacting the Indy 500 at 11:30PM) I swear I see a look in his eyes that seems to miss that dusty Vari kennel. I know I'll never have another dog like him, and I love him to teensy weensy neurotic white dog pieces!

*Ways to help sheltered and rescued pit bulls:

1. Volunteer to help local spay/neuter efforts.2. Supply hand-outs to help educate the public about pit bulls.3. Volunteer to help update a shelter's website.4. Donate a Karunda bed so dogs can sleep better.5. Donate tuff toys like large kong balls.6. Volunteer to walk dogs that are waiting for homes. *copied with permission from badrap-blog.blogspot.com